


Words are rarely enough

by aprofessorstale



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Feels, I mean I assume some of you have read my other works, Sadness, Sam Wilson as Captain America, Screaming, WIP, gross crying, lots of feels, you know the drill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-10 03:21:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6937630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aprofessorstale/pseuds/aprofessorstale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam couldn’t believe the words he was saying, “It’s like I was up there just to watch. I had to watch… again.”</p><p>[Full summary will be in end notes as it is a spoiler~]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Words are rarely enough

Words are rarely enough. They don’t give credit to our hearts, our pain, our joy. Words can also be too much and Sam couldn’t believe the words he was saying, “It’s like I was up there just to watch. I had to watch… again.”

_~Two hours before~_

Doing good in  
the world became a lot harder after Sam and Steve became fugitives. They   
started small, just to get back in the game. Neither of them had it in them to   
walk by an injustice.

Sam and Steve were canvasing a new city, Steve checking the streets and Sam nearby on the rooftops (it was too conspicuous if they walked together) when Steve’s ears caught the voices of three boys at the end of an alleyway. It was clearly a 2 vs 1. The little guy being bullied had a line of blood falling from his eyebrow down over his cheekbone, but his fists were still up. The bigger boys laughed. Steve bristled.

Sam laughed as Steve walked purposefully to the end of the alley. Sam watched a small exchange that felt like a weird déjà vu as Steve pulled on of the bigger boys away from the little one and lightly punched him. He reached down and helped the kid up as the two bullies ran off. Steve crouched down and pulled off his sunglasses. Sam could practically feel the kid beaming even from up on the roof.

Steve saw himself in this kid, Sam could tell. The kid surged into Steve to hug him and the embrace felt weirdly intimate. It was like seeing where everything started for him, the birth of Captain America.

The kid sauntered off. Steve looked up to the rooftops, eyes wandering until he found Sam. His smile was a little crooked. Sam just laughed and saluted him. Steve saluted back.

The gun shot barely registered. As it echoed through the alley, it was the only sound Sam could hear. He shouted, but he didn’t hear it. The bullies took off running again, but he didn’t hear their footsteps. Steve fell to his knees, but Sam didn’t hear the thud.

Sam was in the alley, fire escape shaking precariously from his descent. Blood bloomed from Steve’s chest and colored his lips crimson.

Stupidly, Sam’s first thought was that this couldn’t have happened if Steve still had his shield on his back. He blamed Tony for a moment, but forced himself to let it go. Tony had nothing to do with this.

Steve was struggling to talk, but he was still Captain America. Strong words during dramatic moments were sort of his thing and nothing had ever felt more dramatic than his dying moment. “Sam, you… it’s you.” Steve smiled, laughing and coughing up blood. He knew that was vague. He was struggling to get his thoughts together. There was too much. Too much to say, too much to do. He couldn’t get it all out in the time he had left. He and Sam had been on battlefields. You don’t come back from this. “The shield, the costume, the name. It’s yours now.”

Regardless of the shock he was already in, shock hit in a second wave. “What? You want me to be Captain Falcon?”

Steve laughed again, even though it clearly hurt him. “No, not Cap”- He broke into coughs. Sam tensed, but Steve recovered. “Not Captain Falcon. I want you to be Captain America.”

Sam shook his head. “Steve. _You’re_ Captain America. And you’re gonna make it through this.” It was a pointless lie.

“Yeah, since you haven’t called a medic, I’m sure you’re hopeful.” Sam chewed his lip guiltily. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what there was to say. He _wasn’t_ Captain America. He couldn’t use words like him. Steve continued, “Captain America was never just me. He was Doctor Erskine, he was Howard, he was Peggy, he was a symbol for this country. Still is. I want you to help continue that.”

How do you say no to Captain America’s dying words? Steve’s face grew paler by the second. Blood mixed with the dirty street water and trickled down the sewer. Sam nodded. He knew what it meant to be a symbol. It was a lot, a shit ton of a lot, to consider taking on, but there was nothing to consider. Steve wanted him to do it. So he would.

Steve could feel his time running out. “Bucky.” A tear broke from Steve’s eyes. “Don’t wake him for the funeral. He wouldn’t want to risk it. We’ve found each other after death before. We’ll do it again.” Steve paused, eyes going unfocused toward the sky. His voice was a whisper. “ _Bucky_.” Steve shivered. “Take care of him. I’m at the end of the line.” He smiled to himself and laughed, but Sam didn’t know the joke.

He squeezed Steve’s hand. Steve squeezed back. Steve’s laugh stopped as his body grew still. “Steve?” Steve’s grasp on Sam’s hand went limp. “Steve, don’t do this, man. You can fight this. If anyone can, it’s you. Steve. Steve!”

Captain America lay still on the uneven ground of an alleyway. It was an unimportant moment in an unimportant place that would now be burned into history.

“ _STEVE!_ ”

_~Two hours later~_

Tony gripped the table as Sam relayed the story to him.

“It was two kids? Just two random kids?” Tony spoke through gritted teeth.

Sam just nodded. Words just weren’t enough.

Tony’s eyes were locked on the blood on Sam’s hands and shirt: Captain America’s blood. _Steve’s_ blood. His friend, _Steve_.

Tony choked on his words. “I-” He cleared his throat. “I had the phone in my hand to call you when it rang and you called me.”

That caught Sam’s attention enough for him to pick his head up from where it hung. He looked at Tony for answers. “What do you mean? You were calling about something? From the burner phone?”

To Sam’s surprise, a tear fell from Tony’s eye. “They figured it out. They just ran tests and were going to go through with the procedure.”

Sam’s eyes ran all over Tony, searching for answers he knew he wouldn’t find there. “Procedure? What are you talking about, Tony?”

“For Bucky. They know how to get the brainwashing out of his brain. They were gonna start the procedure today. They wanted Captain America’s consent.”

Sam’s head fell again, the words vibrated through the room like a funeral bell. Bucky would wake up, right in time to say goodbye. Sam’s words were a whisper, “ _You have his consent_.”

  


**Author's Note:**

> When an unassuming conflict leads to Steve's death, it leaves his friends shaken and hollowed out by the pure randomness and unavoidability of it. Especially since it happened on the same day they figured out how to help Bucky and would be waking him up soon.
> 
> Just a short dabble. MIGHT add to it, but that's highly unlikely :/ sorry


End file.
